Dynamite Quay

Just a couple of images I produced to impress a potential (now actual) client. Would have loved to have had time to populate the interiors with loads of furniture, but as is often the way with these things there just wasn't the time. Maybe the client will want to produce some brochure images sometime to promote them to potential buyers... Who knows?

All rendered at 6K with minimal postwork. The hill/golf course/church behind the site is all 3D.

Never tile again...

I am sure you're all very much aware of the plugins "Multitexture" and "Bercon Tiles", many of you have been using them and blogging about them for years now.

Just recently however Multitexture and Bercon Tiles were updated to work with eachother meaning you can now use multitexture to randomly select bitmaps and Bercon Tiles to arrange them in whatever pattern suits. Essentially this is the same as the commercial plugins "brix" and "mighty tiles" though perhaps an ever so slightly more convoluted workflow.

To any of you not in-the-know about these plugins and wondering what the benefits are over using decent high-res maps:

1. The textures are generated procedurally, meaning there will never be any visible tiling artefacts.
2. The plugin allows randomisation of Gamma, Hue & Saturation of individual bricks/tiles.
3. The base textures can be of a higher resolution than a standard bitmap meaning no reduction in quality at close proximity
4. It is considerably easier to go out and take pictures of a dozen individual bricks/tiles close up than it is to find a whole, flat pristine wall to photograph and then make seamless.
5. Used in conjunction with the composite map and UV Unwrapping, very complex and believable textures can be achieved with minimal effort.
6. Major render farms support Multitexture and Bercon Tiles, whereas they may not support other third party brick/tile plugins.

There are of course a couple of disadvantages too:

1. Set up time - for a basic texture it will be much the same as setting up mapping on a normal bitmap image, however if like me you want more complex setups this can start to become a bit of a headache...
2. Because it is generated at rendertime, viewing the bricks/tiles in the viewport doesn't work properly.
3. More RAM usage (I haven't tested this, but logic dictates that using many high resolution textures will use more RAM than a single high resolution texture)

If there is enough interest in setting up textures using these two plugins, I will happily write a tutorial/walkthrough on it. In the mean time, for those of you that want to give it a go yourself here are a set of textures I shot and used just recently...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5cPd0BuCqoFTUVJOUxoNmxDMDA/view?usp=sharing

Windows explorer crashing

Hey arch-vis folk,

Not much of an update here but our office has recently had s spate of windows explorer crashing fairly frequently; somebody noticed that it only happened when navigating into folders containing Sketchup files and we managed to replicate the issue over and over again.

Whilst there isn't currently a fix from Sketchup (they are aware of the issue) there is a temporary fix that you can do yourself. If you navigate to the Sketchup program files and find a file called "ThumbsUp.dll" and rename it to something else such as "ThumbsUpOld.dll" then this will fix the issue and doesn't appear to affect Sketchup in any way.

Feeling neglected

Sorry for not updating the blog as regularly as I should do...

A few shots from a project I've been working on the past few weeks. Have had a multitude of problems trying to import from Revit and ultimately ended up having to sack off the file link in favour of bringing it in as simple .fbx geometry.

Try not to get too excited though, they are only speculative offices on an already heavily industrialised site. I have uploaded the original 24 megapixel renders, but the blog appears to have resized them. I shall try to do some detail crops soon.

Stressful times...

Been a while since an update which is something of a recurring theme here it seems, so I thought I'd just post something to let you know I am still very much alive and well; just extremely busy with various 3D projects.

I'd wager that given the current workload we are definitely coming out of a recession, and fast. That is of course provided nobody does anything to mess it up; yes Putin I'm looking at you.

On a side note I've recently got the office to invest in Railclone Pro and quite frankly I don't know how I've managed without it before; the sheer number of hours put down to working out stairs, handrails and so on..!

Sorry this isn't much of an update, merely a bit of a ramble but I shall endeavour to get some more images and projects uploaded here as soon as I can.

What's going on?

Well, obviously given the time away from the blog I suppose it would be good practice to wish everybody a very merry christmas, and also a very happy new year...

Rhodes

Just a few holiday snaps from when I went to Rhodes 2 weeks ago. Lovely place...

Finally, it's here...

After gaining an absolutely astonishing amount of well deserved publicity, promptly followed up by month after month of silence (except for the impromptu entrance on the Ronen Bekerman forums) it seems that Alex Roman is finally willing to start taking orders on his book, and hopefully reveal to us all just how on earth one man managed to accomplish what entire teams of people find it difficult to do; genuinely photo-realistic, movie like animation.

Head on over to his new site at http://www.thirdseventh-book.com/

First thing tomorrow that I shall be doing is ordering this at work. I suggest you do too if you have any modicum of interest in 3D.

Architectural Photography

So yet again work has been manic and I've found myself neglecting the blog a little, and whilst I've no work of my own I can share I can at least share somebody elses. After a late night spree on design websites (I'm sure you know how it goes) I stumbled across an architectural photographer that has taken what are in my opinion some of the most stunning photographs of buildings/places/spaces that i've ever seen, his name is Johannes Heuckeroth.

Check out his website here: http://pfnphoto.com/new/

Bitmap tip

Who'd have thought something that's been there all along could improve your renderings so much?..

Bertrand raises the bar, yet again.

I'm sure those of you that are into arch-viz will be well aware of Bertrand Benoit and the stunning works he produces, but for those of you that aren't into arch-viz firstly why are you here? and secondly check him out:

http://bertrand-benoit.com/blog/2013/05/12/baron-haussmann/

This latest set of images of his is stunning, not to detract from any of the other stunning images he's produced in the past - but the subtle details that lurk in every corner of the image are something to behold. Even the sub-surface-scattering effect that is visible on the fireplace is perfect, something I've yet to achieve with SSS.

Now if only Benjamin Brosdau would start a blog too...

Arghh!

So, after 8 consecutive "blue screen of deaths" my work pc appears to have given up, right on time for an enormous deadline on some competition work. I'm now working on a tin-pot i3 machine until my workstation is fixed or replaced.

Lovely.

3D surfaces using displacement.

Windows 8 and OS woes

Firstly, let's get things straight. I cannot stand apple, purely because I don't like OSX (don't get me started) and nor do I like paying a ludicrous amount for something I could get cheaper without a little apple logo on it; the latter reason probably being the more predominant of the two.

Grow trees, grow!

So linking on from my last post in which I explained that I'm currently in the process of creating various bits of foliage for the Olnick Spanu House project I felt that it might be of interest to show you some of the progress made with the leaf shader - of which there was some talk on the Ronen Bekerman Forums, a fair bit of which was being directed at the lack of reflectivity when using the VRay2sided material, and the lack of light penetrating the leaves...

What's new?

Well, I'm back with an update, albeit a minor one. Nothing much new to report on the Olnick Spanu House project as it's taken a slight back seat due to work & the fact that I've bought a new bike and am trying to get some use out of it before what little there is of the summer disappears.

A work in progress

Whilst I've made many hints at starting lots of portfolio works both online and to my friends & family, I always make a marvelous start which very quickly fades to nothing and I end up with a myriad of half finished projects. Alas I can't help but feel it's simply because I've picked projects that don't interest me enough; I've always yearned to re-create Mies Van Der Rohe's Farnsworth House, but with it having been done so many times (and especially well by Alessandro Prodan) I figured I might as well scrap that idea...

All's quiet on the western front...

Well it feels like, and is a long time since I last posted here. Rest assured, I am still here and do fully intend to keep the blog up to date as often as possible, but as is always the way with anything ambitious in my life; other things get in the way.

However I do hope that on my next blog update I should be able to provide quite a few bits & pieces of downloadable material. Until then be sure to follow me on twitter and instagram @macker202

Million Poly Lamp

So i'm guessing the title has caught your eye, has it not?

Favourite Design

Favourite design...

Well I suppose it's a tad overdue that I made another post. Things have been rather busy at work on various projects, but the upside to that is that I've managed to create a few items which I can put out there for everyone...